1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally directed toward sports head wear, and more particularly toward a combination cap/glove for selective use as a cap for covering a user's head and a glove for catching a ball.
2. Background Art
Baseball caps have been around for many years and traditionally consist of four to six triangular shaped sections sewn together so that a point of each triangle meets at the center, or apex of a crown. A stiff brim or visor is sewn to a peripheral portion of the crown. Such baseball caps have been worn for years by baseball players and spectators at baseball games. The caps often bear a logo of the player's team or the spectator's preferred team and function both to demonstrate allegiance with a team and to shade the user's eyes from the sun.
Baseball gloves have also been associated with the game of baseball for many years. Baseball gloves are used by fielders to assist in catching baseballs. In addition, it is a common practice for spectators to bring baseball gloves to baseball games in order to catch baseballs that are hit into the stands. One problem with baseball gloves is that they are heavy and awkward when worn continuously on a spectator's hand and must also be removed during eating or whenever two hands are required. Thus, baseball gloves can be easily lost at baseball games because of the need to remove the baseball glove from time to time. Furthermore, because a ball may be struck into the stands at any time, a spectator who has momentarily removed a glove may not be able to quickly locate and deploy the glove in order to catch a baseball.
There has long been a need to combine the convenience of a baseball cap with the protection of a baseball glove and such cap/gloves have been the subject of at least two prior art patents, Villalobos, U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,232 and Hunt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,543. Villalobos discloses a cap comprising a concave crown formed of a flexible sheet having a brim formed of a stiffener covered with a flexible sheet material attached to a peripheral edge of the crown. A mit is attached to an outer surface of the crown for receiving a person's hand so that the interior of the crown can be positioned by a hand received in the mit to capture a flying object such as a baseball. Villalobos further teaches providing a pad between the mit and the interior of the crown for protecting a user's hand while catching an object. Villalobos also teaches that the mit is positioned on the crown above the brim with the opening of the mit where the peripheral edge of the crown meets the brim. Villalobos teaches an elastic band attached along the opening of the mit to aid in holding the cap in place on a user's hand.
Villalobos is clearly an improvement over the use of the standard baseball cap for catching baseballs. However, Villalobos still has several serious defects. First, Villalobos relies primarily on the interior of the crown to capture a baseball. If a user does not successfully position the baseball over the user's palm when using the Villalobos glove/cap and the ball is received in the crown above the user's hand, the ball is likely to bounce out of the interior of the cap before the user can retrieve it. In addition, if the user is successful in guiding the mit portion of the crown to the baseball, the padding is insufficient to provide true protection for the hand and a possibility of serious injury to the user's hand is presented. Furthermore, the cap/glove of Villalobos teaches an access to the mit at the intersection of the crown and brim where it can be difficult for a user to quickly insert his hand under the elastic strip. Thus, Villalobos can be difficult to deploy in the few seconds a fan has to react and to catch a ball. Finally, Villalobos teaches a mit on an outer surface of a cap which has an unsightly appearance and could deter fashion conscious sports fans from using an otherwise potentially useful article.
Hunt teaches a cap/glove including a crown portion having a material liner on an interior portion of the crown defining a pocket for accommodating a user's hand therein. The pocket has an opening at the rear of the cap for receiving the user's hand. Hunt further teaches providing a protective pad between the interior of the crown and the glove.
The structure of Hunt has additional deficiencies to those mentioned above with regard to Villalobos. In particular, Hunt teaches only that the glove is accessible from the back of the cap. Thus, the cap/glove of Hunt can not be quickly deployed as a glove. Furthermore, Hunt does nothing to overcome the problems with retaining a ball in the interior of the crown during the catching of a ball as discussed above with regard to Villalobos.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.